RVC School District to Launch New Website

School district officials said complaints from parents on the district's website were all the same. They weren't receiving pertinent school information in a timely manner, and the site was arduous to navigate.

Officials hope those issues will be problems of the past after the district launches its new site on July 1. 

According to Chris Pellettieri, assistant superintendent of curriculum, the district will use Edline, a learning community management system that creates an interactive, multimedia site that connects students, parents and teachers in one online community. 

"Getting things posted on the site has been difficult," Pellettieri said. "Things would go up, but not quickly. Edline has a very simple process and just about anything can be posted in a matter of seconds."

If there was an upcoming event at one of the schools, like a concert, Pellettieri said the district relied on the calendar to inform parents. With Edline, he explained, the district can essentially create a tab on the new site specifically for the concert, with posted rehearsal hours, practice dates and showtimes. The same can be done for each sport and club in the district, he said, centralizing all the information for each group into one, easy to find location.

"I could even put a permission slip online and moms and dads could download it, and send it back," he added.

For teachers, the new site will allow each one to create their own online group, which would let students — and parents —  check assignments, homework, updated notes and grades at anytime. The system can also grade exams/assignments and input them into the system, saving teachers time and allowing parents to continuously stay in the loop on how their child is performing.

"We want to be transparent and communicate with the community, and this is a means to that end," Pellettieri said.

Each parent would also have their own log-in to the site to check on how their kids are doing, or find out what they missed if they were absent. District calendars will be customized for parents as well, Pellettieri said. If a parent has kids in three different schools, he explained, they wouldn't have to check three separate calendars anymore. The customized one would combine all that information into one, easy to read calendar.

Pellettieri noted that teachers will have to be trained on how to use the new site, which he said should be complete by September.

To find out more about Edline, click here.